Domesticated Housedogs?

Pastors are well aware of the massive disconnect between Sunday and Monday for most believers. A domesticated "housebroken" Gospel has turned the Church into a domesticated "housedog"—a state, in the words of the late Dick Halverson, that confuses "church work" with "the work of the Church." As Howard Butt reminds us, the doctrine of the Trinity saves us from the error of missing or denying God's activity in, and Lordship over, all of life, including the workplace.

Recognizing that the Father is just as sovereign at 3 p.m. Tuesday as 11 a.m. Sunday, that work is worship, and that the workplace is a prime mission field, Mr. Butt zeroes in on how the Christian leader, modeled after the Trinity, can represent the Lord as a servant in the workplace. To lead well is first of all to follow the Triune God who comes to us in the servant Jesus Christ.

The servant leader sees every client, colleague, and situation as a divine appointment . . . will risk failure and not despair over mistakes or downturns, because the Son can redeem anything . . . looks beyond his or her personal wisdom and primarily, prayerfully, seeks the Holy Spirit's guidance. And since the Trinity reveals God as a being of relational love, the servant leader identifies the real bottom line as love for God and those made in God's image. Trinitarian servant leadership guides the would-be-faithful Christian leader between dictatorship and the rudderless egalitarian model where no one seems to know who is in charge.

Christians too often behave at work as though they were outside Christ's rule—as though farm or factory or office, Monday to Friday, were not equal to their work in Sunday School or Bible class. In effect, this thinking denies Christ's cosmic Lordship.